In recent years, the number of offered communication system access technologies with comparable performance significantly increased, making it prudent to manufacture multi-mode wireless access terminals. That is, it is not unusual to come across the mobile terminal that is capable of operating on CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) and 1xEV-DO (Evolution-Data Optimized) defined by 3GPP2—Third Generation Partnership Project 2; GSM (Global System for Mobile), UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System) also known as WCDMA, GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) for UMTS, EDGE (Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution) defined by the 3GPP—Third Generation Partnership Project; WiFi (Wireless Fidelity—class of wireless local area network (WLAN) devices based on the IEEE 802.11 standards), WiMAX (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave) defined by the WiMAX Forum, etc. Interworking between two or more access technologies becomes crucial for wireless core network operators, as they can offer the common core network services to the users owning the multi-mode terminals.
As the wireless terminal accesses the network, it is authenticated for legitimacy. This authentication may be specific for a given access technology, but with proliferation of an Encapsulated Authentication Protocol (EAP), a common authentication framework transparent to the access technology became popular. EAP is disclosed in detail in IETF RFC 5247, Extensible Authentication Protocol (EAP) Key Management Framework, August 2008, the disclosure of which is incorporated by reference herein.
However, existing EAP authentication operations do not permit multiple security contexts to be effectively maintained with respect to a given communication device for multiple access technologies. Thus, a need exists for overcoming this and other limitations of existing authentication schemes.